Kids With Disabilities Overcome Mountains

Pocono Township, Monroe County - Kids with disabilities are proving you don't have to let anything hold you back. It's adaptive ski camp week at Camelback Mountain in Monroe County.

Stephanie Jallen is one of the campers. She was born with an underdeveloped left side. She said she never met another child with a disability until she first attended adaptive ski camp at nine-years-old. She smiled, "I overcame a lot when I met everybody and we overcame it together. And we grew to be the best of friends."

Stephanie attended every year for seven years and grew to become an expert skier. Now she's on the US Paralympic team. "The opportunities this opened for me are endless. I love it to death," she grinned.

The teen ski racer still makes time for the annual camp and eventually hopes to become a counselor. She said, "Skiing is my life. It's my passion. I love the people I've been able to meet. I love the friends that are here."

She is one of about a dozen kids at the Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports Camp this Year. They are staying for a week. Camper Raphael Allusson said, "I come to this camp because I make new friends and I get to ski."

And the kids say if they can ski, you can overcome the obstacles in your life. "I don't think any of us take it as a disability. It's just an ability to do something greater," said Stephanie.

On Saturday the campers will race in the Diana Golden Race. It's an introductory alpine ski race for people with physical disabilities. It is the first step toward qualifying for the Paralympic games.